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Gangs Essay

Below is an essay on "Gangs" from Anti Essays, your source for research papers, essays, and term paper examples.

In the wake of the 1960’s, the city of Los Angeles, California was becoming known for its rough, thuggish and malicious behavior. With cities like Hollywood, which are known for discovering famous movies stars and entertainers, why has Los Angeles gained this reputation that diminishes the character of its people and bring down the essence and peace that is Los Angeles? One of the main reason’s Los Angeles became the gang capitol of the nation was due to social injustice towards African Americans. In the mid 1960’s the Black Panther movement was established to protect the rights and lives of the African American community. One could say that Social Justice is best described as, creating equality for all and recognizing the dignity of every human being and for African Americans in Los Angeles that equality and dignity was not being distributed equally and the community was no longer going to stand by and let this treatment continue.
The Black Panther organizations initial motive was to protect African American neighborhoods from police brutality and over time, their objectives and philosophies expanded. The Black Panther Party started in Oakland California and by the 1970’s the Party had reached a number of other states including; New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, San Diego, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and even Denmark. The Black Panther Party displayed a very powerful cohesiveness that was only strengthened by the feeling that they had been treated unfairly by the Government, police, and the public. It gave all African Americans a sense of community and bonded them giving them the strength to stand up and fight thus, making their group grow. Irving Janis (1918-1990) would describe the Black Panther Parties ideology as groupthink. Janis identified eight symptoms of groupthink and the Panther’s actions and ideology displayed several of those symptoms however, one of those symptoms stood out more than the others. One of the symptoms the Panthers...